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All Over for Another Year

The excitement is over for another year and this weeks feels like a bit of an anticlimax. Before we know it the 2 year olds will be out again.

It was another great festival in which we saw some exceptionally high class performances and a fair share of disappointing ones. Interestingly 3 of the 4 feature races were won by the favourite (Hurricane Fly, Big Bucks and Long Run) but taking those out of the equation the average price of the winners was just over 10/1 by my reckoning and (excluding the feature races) ony 4 favourites triumphed all week (from 23 races). That's a measure of how hard it can be.

The stand out performance for me? It has to be Long Run in the Gold Cup. I was firmly in the doubters camp before the race. There was no doubt in my mind that he's a top class animal but appeared, at least to me, to have an awful lot of negatives that made him impossible to back (even taking into account the incredibly positive vibes coming from the stable). Let's look at the factors that made it such a big ask:

Age - A 6 year old hasn't won the race since Mill House in 1963

Jockey - An amateur rider hasn't ridden the winner in more than 30 years

Trainer Form - Henderson's charges appeared to be under performing

Course Form - His only 2 defeats had come at Cheltenham

To have overcome those negatives in such emphatic style marks Long Run down as a very,very special horse indeed and I won't be doubting him again in a hurry.

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Congratulations to Rugbymoon who triumphed in the blog's inaugural tipping competition with a final score of 10 earned by tipping Al Ferof in the very first race of the festival. The £30 prize is winging it's way to you as we speak.

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In my post last Friday morning, I mentioned the very nice Pipe double I'd landed with Buena Vista and Junior on the 3rd day of the festival. I was very disappointed that I'd not posted it up on the Thursday morning but it was just one of many bets I'd had on the day, I'd had terrible problems that morning with my hosting company being down and, to be completely honest, I wouldn't have struck the bet were it not for my colleague offering me half of his wager. It's sods law that the few horses I did mention on the blog throughout the week are still running and the double that I didn't mention was landed. Sincere apologies to all readers for that.

I noticed this morning that there was a comment on that post that casts doubt on the veracity of my claim. I have no objection to those kind of comments - if I'm going to mention winners after I've had them I have to expect that some people will find it hard to believe. That's fair enough - but I would like to stress that I will never claim winners that I haven't had. Below I've posted screenshots of the winning slips.

I've erased the bet confirmation numbers and the amounts bet because 1) The Bets weren't placed on my account and 2) I don't want any spies from Bet £3.65 being able to identify the owner of the account!